Pakistan's most targeted man

President Asif Zardari is hogging the news. And most of it is bad news, for himself and for Pakistan. For starters, the Lahore High Court is hearing petitions against him on two counts.

One petition prays that he should be stripped of one of the two hats that he wears: that of Co-Chair of the PPP and that of the President of Pakistan.

The other one claims he is in contempt of court for continuing to politicise the office of the President, a conclusion that has been drawn from a judgment of the Supreme Court in the Asghar Khan-ISI case that says the Presidency is supposed to be neutral, apolitical and bipartisan since it is an "office in the service of Pakistan" rather than a "constitutional office under parliament".

If the first petition is decided against him, Zardari will have to decide which hat to retain.

If he doffs the co-chair of the PPP, he will have problems whipping the PPP into election politics. The PPP chairman, Bilawal Bhutto, is too young and inexperienced for such a role and there is no effective second-in-command to do the job.

If he quits the Presidency, he will lose the presidential immunity from prosecution at home and abroad and face great difficulties. Zardari's argument is that parliament has given him a role in politics and the courts cannot override the sovereignty of parliament.

In an extraordinary statement before a bench of the SC, the Attorney-General has gone so far as to argue that it is "unconstitutional" for the SC to breach the sovereignty of parliament as reposed in the Presidency.

So we may expect him to prolong the fight instead of throwing in the towel. That means more instability and uncertainty.

Zardari has now taken exception to a decision of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan(JCP) headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan to elevate Justice Anwar Kasi as chief justice of the Islamabad High Court after the retirement of Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rahman, to confirm the permanent status of Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and to extend the term of Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi as judges of the same court.

Instead of signing on the dotted line, he has referred the matter to the JCP for reconsideration.

His argument is that the constitution of the JCP when it took these decisions was unconstitutional because Justice Riaz and not Justice Kasi should have participated in the proceedings of the JCP on October 22 because Justice Riaz was entitled to become the next Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court on the basis of seniority.

The matter of seniority was pending in the law ministry when the JCP met but it went ahead with its decision nevertheless.

The matter could have been settled in just one quick meeting of the JCP with Justice Riaz participating as the proposed new Chief Justice of the IHC.

Instead, the SC has chosen to hear a petition chalenging President Zardari's referral of the case to the JCP. Zardari is right to refer the matter to the JCP because the right of Justice Riaz to be CJIHC has been denied. The petitioner is right in arguing that Zardari cannot reject the decision of the JCP.

If the court orders President Zardari to sign the notification or face contempt charges, the adversarial environment will get worse. ZARDARI is also in the eye of the Karachi storm.

One of his alliance partners, Awami National Party, is demanding a military intervention in the city against criminals and terrorists who have laid it low.

Another partner, MQM, is resolutely opposed to any such operation because it fears it will get the worst end of the stick as in the military operation in 1992.

The ANP is opposed to the local government law decreed by the PPP Sindh government to appease the MQM. But the MQM is unhappy because the PPP is not ready to hold local elections for fear of antagonizing the ANP and local anti-MQM nationalist sentiment.

The additional complication is an aggressive observation by the SC that the Sindh government would lose its constitutional right to govern if it fails in its duty to restore law and order quickly.

But the Sindh government is loath to ask the army for help. Such a decision would amount to a vote of no-confidence in itself and in the federal government.

It would also provoke the MQM to quit the federal coalition and refuse to be an alliance partner with the PPP in the next general elections, which would effectively put paid to Zardari's plans to cobble another coalition government for the next five years.

Regrettably, Zardari has only himself to blame for most of his troubles. He didn't offer any resistance when the judges banded together to demand that parliament make laws that made them omnipotent and unaccountable. Now they are rampaging and he is helpless to protect himself or parliament.

Similarly, he has allowed Karachi and Balochistan and FATA to slide into chaos without rapping his alliance partners who are at odds with each other and with the PPP.

He has survived in office but only at the cost of losing power. The net result is an overload of corruption and bad governance that has made him the most targeted man in the country.